Leading subject association for art history in the UK announces new identity

Since July 2017, the leading subject association for art history in the United Kingdom, the Association of Art Historians, has been known as the Association for Art History. The change of name and new identity mark the beginning of a new era for the Association, following a review of its role in shaping the future for art history.

The Association’s mission since its foundation in 1974 has been to champion art history for all. Working in partnership with London-based agency Spencer du Bois to build upon this original ethos, the new identity restates their role as advocates for art history.

The new graphic identity feeds into their wider campaigning and audience development work to increase awareness, understanding, and engagement with art history, particularly in education. Highlights from their education campaign and 2018 program will be announced this autumn. Their ambition is to encourage people across the UK to recognize the ways in which learning about art history offers a unique insight into the world: to encourage people to think differently; to see differently.

Pontus Rosén, CEO of the Association for Art History, states, “Our strength as the national subject association for art history relies on how we express ourselves to new and existing audiences. The name change and rebrand demonstrates our commitment to be more visible and vocal for the subject.”

Christine Riding, Chair of the Association, said, “In 1974 we were radical in our approach. We wanted to change the way people perceived art history, we dared to do things differently. For over 40 years we have championed a broad and inclusive art history for the many not the few. Our ethos has always been one of inclusivity and our new identity reinforces that inclusivity.”

The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) is pleased to announce the 2017 a2ru National Conference, hosted by Northeastern University with additional conference events throughout hosted by Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tufts University, November 1-4, 2017.

Arts in the Public Sphere: Civility, Advocacy, and Engagement will use the city of Boston as a starting point for discussion and engagement. As a 21st century global city, Boston embodies many of the issues that drive diverse contemporary cultural contexts. It supports a rich and continually evolving sense of civic realms, and is home to leading arts, educational, medical, industrial and corporate entities invested in innovative modes of research, practice and civic participation. There is also clear recognition that the ‘public sphere’ is not confined to large metropolitan regions. Creating dynamic communities that engage and extend beyond traditional boundaries—in both virtual and material ways—remains a growing challenge and the work before us.

The 2017 conference will include working groups, panels, and presentations from representatives from over 50 institutions across the world. Keynotes and conversations will feature thought leaders including Jamie Bennett (ArtPlace America), Jeremy Liu (PolicyLink), Peter Galison (Harvard University), Rick Lowe (Project Row Houses and the University of Houston), and Maria Rosario Jackson (The Kresge Foundation). Plenary panels addressing issues related to funding, higher education, and arts as research will include Kent Devereaux (New Hampshire Institute of Art), Jason Schupbach (Arizona State University), Steven Tepper (Arizona State University), Elizabeth Hudson (Northeastern University), and Julia Smith (Association of American Universities), and E. San San Wong (Barr Foundation).

Registration is open now through October 25. To register and for more information, please visit the conference website.

Society for Photographic Education’s 55th Annual Conference, Uncertain Times: Borders, Refuge, Community, Nationhood, will take place March 1­4, 2018, in Philadelphia, PA. Connect with 1,600 artists, educators, and photographers from around the world for programming that will fuel your creativity – four days of presentations, industry seminars, and critiques to engage you! Explore an exhibits fair featuring the latest equipment, processes, publications, and photography/media schools. Participate in one-on-one portfolio critiques, and informal portfolio sharing. Other highlights include a print raffle, silent auction, mentoring sessions,

The most recent number of SECAC’s annual journal, Art Inquiries (formerly the SECAC Review), has been published. The current issue includes book and exhibition reviews, feature articles on Gustave Caillebotte, Andy Warhol, Robert Irwin, and Greek vase painting, and an interview with sculptor Duane Paxson whose work is featured on the cover.

The 73rd Annual SECAC Conference, hosted by the Columbus College of Art & Design, will be held in Columbus, Ohio, October 25 through 28, 2017. Keynote speakers are Heidelberg Project founder Tyree Guyton and the project’s Executive Director Jenenne Whitfield. Off-site events during the conference will include a Thursday evening Open House at CCAD featuring the SECAC 2017 Juried Exhibition, a Friday evening reception at the Pizzuti Collection, and extended hours at the newly renovated Columbus Museum of Art.

After a fantastic response to our call for papers, TIAMSA’s first international conference on ‘Art Fairs’ united 28 speakers from countries worldwide who explored this year’s theme in six sessions. Held at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London on July 13-15, 2017, the conference featured two keynotes, one by Sophie Raux (Université Lumière – Lyon 2), who provided fascinating insights into the early history of art fairs in the 16th and 17th centuries, the other by Noah Horowitz (Director Americas / Member of the Executive Committee, Art Basel), who responded to questions from Olav Velthuis and the audience. The conference featured six sessions addressing subjects such as “Standards of Quality and Vetting,“ “Historical and Geographic Contexts” or “Biennales and Nascent Fairs.” Carried by many excellent papers, the event not only showed that the subject of the art fair still offers many facets that deserves further exploration; the conference was also marked by enthusiasm, lively debate, and intensive networking!

The conference was preceded by three memorable events open to TIAMSA members, namely an exploration of the Agnew’s Archive at the National Gallery, London with Alan Crookham (Head of NG Research Centre); a guided tour with Highlights of the National Gallery’s Collection History with Susanna Avery-Quash (Curator at the NG); and an inside tour of Thaddaeus Ropac’s new London gallery, with Polly Gaer, Gallery Director.

We were also happy that many of our members attended our second Annual General Meeting, held just before our conference. We looked back on our first year, fine-tuned our ‘modus operandi’, and elected and cordially welcomed four new board members: Kim Oosterlinck (University of Bruxelles), Iain Robertson (Sotheby’s Institute), Olav Velthuis (University of Amsterdam) and Filip Vermeylen (University of Rotterdam), and also made plans for next year’s conference.

For the most up-to-date information on all ASA meetings and co-sponsored conferences, look at the bottom of any page on our website and look for “Meetings.” Click “more” to see the complete list. There you will find schedules, CFPs, on-line registration, and other information.

PAD invites submissions for the Fall 2018 issue of the journal, Public Art Dialogue. The issue’s theme will be “Public Art as Political Action,” and the deadline for submissions is March 1, 2018. Though a resurgence in political art and protest brings contemporary art to the forefront, this issue also hopes to look at historic precedents for contemporary public protest art by revisiting the ephemera, public actions, and protest art of the past. Public Art Dialogue welcomes submissions from art historians, critics, artists, architects, landscape architects, curators, administrators, and other public art scholars and professionals, including those who are emerging as well as already established in the field. See the call for papers.

Public Art Dialogue hopes to see many CAA members at the Annual Conference in February. PAD’s sponsored session will be on the topic of “Teachable Monuments,” chaired by Sierra Rooney and Harriet Senie.

The Networked Curator workshop, held February 7 – 9, 2018 at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, is open for applications. Organized by the AAMC Foundation and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) at George Mason University, this three-day workshop provides participants with an expanded digital vocabulary, and assists in cultivating resources available for organizing, sharing, and publishing research.

Applications are now open for the AAMC Foundation Engagement Program for International Curators for the 2017-2019 class. The Program awards three non-US based curators for a two-year period, paired with three US Liaisons for the first year, in an effort to foster international relationships among curators. Both International Awardees and US Liaisons are offered numerous benefits throughout the Program.

The Society of Architectural Historians will present the SAH Awards for Architectural Excellence at its 8th Annual Awards Gala on Friday, November 17, at The Racquet Club of Chicago. SAH will honor architect Ralph Johnson, FAIA, Perkins + Will, with the Award for Design, Planning and Sustainability, architects Sharon Johnston, FAIA and Mark Lee, Johnston Marklee, with the Award for Public Engagement with the Built Environment, and Col. Jennifer N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Ret), TAWANI Foundation, with the Award for Architectural Stewardship. Purchase tickets.

SAH seeks partners to organize tours of the built environment for our youth-oriented American Architecture and Landscape Field Trip Program. Created to provide opportunities for underserved students from the third grade through high school, SAH offers grants to not-for-profits to organize tours for young people on the history of architecture, parks, gardens, and town/city planning.

SAH is accepting applications for the H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship. This award will allow a recent graduate or emerging scholar to study by travel for one year. The fellowship is not for the purpose of doing research for an advanced academic degree, but instead is intended for study by travel and contemplation while observing, reading, writing, or sketching. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2017.

Applications for the SAH Membership Grant for Emerging Professionals are open. This award provides emerging scholars with a one-year SAH membership and is intended for entry-level college and university professors and other new professionals engaged in the study of the built environment. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2017.

The Society is accepting applications from junior and senior scholars for the Edilia and François-Auguste de Montêquin Fellowship. This award provides support for travel related to research on Spanish, Portuguese, or Ibero-American architecture. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2017.

AHAA invites you to save the date for its biennial symposium, October 4-6, 2018, to be held in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, and sponsored by the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Sessions and collaborations will be announced soon. To learn more about past symposia, please see the Symposia Archive under the Programs tab at ahaaonline.org.

Amidst the ongoing and very robust conversation on the American Art listserv (AmArt-L) regarding the public controversy surrounding monument and memorial culture, AHAA seeks to clarify its relationship to the listserv and its archives, given their shared constituencies. AHAA is not affiliated with the AmArt-L, which is moderated by Karen Bearor and the Florida State University (FSU) and is archived and searchable to subscribers. Please note that the AHAA refrains from making public statements on behalf of its membership, just as the viewpoints expressed on AmArt-L pertain to the individuals posting to the list.

The Midwest Art History Society is pleased to announce its new officers: President Heidi Hornik, Baylor University; Secretary Paula Wisotzki, Loyola University Chicago; Treasurer Valerie Hedquist, University of Montana; and Past President Henry Luttikhuizen, Calvin College.

The Society reports its 2017 Graduate Student Presentation Award went to Katherine Brunk Harnish, Ph.D. candidate, Washington University, St Louis, for her paper “Painting Ephemera in the Age of Mass-Production: American Trompe l’Oeil Painting and Visual Culture in the Late Nineteenth Century.”

And Rory O’Dea, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design, The New School University, received MAHS’s 2017 Emerging Scholar Distinguished Presentation Award for her paper, “Documentary Fictions: Robert Smithson and Pierre Huyghe’s Voyages into the Unknown.”

The MAHS 2018 Annual Conference will take place April 5-7, 2018 in Indianapolis, Indiana, hosted by the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.​

Teaching and Writing the Art Histories of Latin American Los Angeles, October 6, 2017 at the Getty Center 10:00AM-3:00PM.

Inspired by the Getty’s region-wide art initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, this symposium considers the abundance of new knowledge generated by the PST LA/LA exhibitions, and how it will impact curricula, pedagogy, and future scholarship

Charlene Villaseñor Black, UCLA, Keynote Speaker

“Decolonizing Art History: Institutional Challenges and the Histories of Latinx and Latin American Art”

Erin Aldana, University of San Diego

Using the exhibition “Xerografia: Copyart in Brazil, 1970-1990” as a case study

Report on the 11th International IAWIS/IAERTI Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland (UNIL), 10-14 July 2017

After Amsterdam, Zurich, Ottawa, Dublin, Claremont, Hambourg, Philadelphia Paris, Montréal and Dundee, the Eleventh Triennial Conference on Word and Image Studies took place by the Leman Lake at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland in early July. Three hundred delegates convened to Lausanne for a very successful week devoted to the theme of Reproductions/reproducibility in Word and Image studies and in the humanities at large.

The conference was beautifully organized by Executive Board Member Philippe Kaenel and his local team and met with great success. Aside from parallel sessions and stimulating plenary lectures (by Bernard Vouilloux and Véronique Plesch), three exhibitions and one film showing (with an introductory speech by Alain Boillat) were coordinated by the host university. Following the IAWIS conference tradition, various excursions were proposed to the delegates half-way through the week allowing the delegates a full day’s rest and cultural exchanges.

IAWIS/IAERTI 30th Birthday

The conference in Lausanne was also the opportunity to celebrate the Association’s thirty years of existence and pay homage to its founding members as well as to its former and current presidents and vice-presidents. The general Assembly meeting and Banquet dinner were an opportunity to pay tribute to the achievement of eminent Word and Image scholars, Véronique Plesch (President), Professor of Art History at Colby College (Waterville, Maine, USA), and Catriona Macleod (vice-president), Professor in Germanic Studies, (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) as they were both stepping down from their post after having dutifully and successfully served the association for nine years. Their commitment to the advancement of word and image studies and the development of the Association was highly praised by everyone present. No doubt their leadership will be sorely missed but they will remain actively involved in the association as members of the advisory board.

Announcement of new Board Members

The general Assembly Meeting in Lausanne allowed the attending members to elect a new president and a new vice-president/secretary for IAWIS, Liliane Louvel, Professor Emerita at the University of Poitiers (France) and Laurence Rousssillon-Constanty, Professor at the University of Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (France).

Professor Liliane Louvel is an outstanding scholar in Word and Image Studies and has widely contributed to the development of the field of Word and Image studies in France. Her most popular book, L’Oeil du Texte, published in 1998 (Toulouse, PUM) has for many years become standard reading for Word and Image scholars in France and the book has recently been published in English. She has extensively published on modern Literature and painting and edited many books. She has also served in several associations for the development of English Studies in France (SAES) and Europe (ESSE).

Professor Laurence Roussillon-Constanty works on the relation between text and image in the Victorian period and has published a monograph on Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting and poetry (2008). She has been a IAWIS enthusiast for many years and has chaired several sessions in previous IAWIS conferences. Her interest is interdisciplinary and her latest research focuses on science and art relations in John Ruskin’s writing.

This publication celebrates actual mutually enriching dialogues between science, literature, and art. The essays in this volume are based on papers presented at the Tenth Triennial Conference on Word and Image Studies, “Riddles of Form: Exploration and Discovery in Word and Image”, which was held from 11-15 August 2014 at the University of Dundee, Scotland, hosted by the Scottish Word and Image Group (SWIG).

Call for Proposals for Hosting the next triennial Conference

The IAWIS/AIERTI Executive Board is soliciting proposals from potential hosts for the 2020 and the 2023 versions of our international triennial conference.

Please submit a 1-page description of the conference theme, along with a few paragraphs providing information on the venue and its facilities for hosting ~250 participants, your organizing team, your strategy for maintaining English-French bilingualism, possible excursions, and possible sources of funding. Deadline: December 1 2017.

[7.12.17] Victoria Hoyt, Instructor at Metropolitan Community College & FATE Shout Out Award Winner, discusses practical take aways from the FATE conference, strategies for encouraging the habit of observation, self reflection, the value of mid-term evaluations & responding to a wide range of diverse backgrounds in the community college classroom.

[8.09.17] Amy Reidel, faculty member at both St. Louis Community College and Saint Louis University & FATE Shout Out Award Winner, discusses happiness, community engagement, privilege & practical tips for projects that encourage critical thinking.

Upcoming for CAA 2018: An Inclusion and Empathy Roundtable discussion and podcasting session will be hosted during FATE’s Business Meeting at the conference: Feb 22, 12:30 – 1:30p, Rm 402A, LA Convention Center.

FATE’s CAA Affiliate representative, Naomi J. Falk, along with Richard Moninski, will co-chair FATE’s Affiliated Society session, entitled, “Let’s Dance, But Don’t Call Me Baby: Dialogue, Empathy, and Inclusion in the Classroom and Beyond.” Feeling welcome, acknowledged, and heard encourages learning. Fostering inclusiveness and empathy on behalf of minority students legitimizes perspectives. How do we build trust and empathy between faculty, students, peers, and others in our classrooms and communities? How do we create a welcoming and inclusive environment? What has worked? What has gone terribly wrong? Where do we go from here? Examples of readings, projects, tools, and exercises for building inclusive, encouraging, and productive dialogues are all of interest. More info? Please contact: Naomi J. Falk, naomijfalk@gmail.com

SHERA is sponsoring a panel at the upcoming 49th Annual ASEEES Convention that will take place at Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile on 9-12 November 2017. SHERA Membership meeting is scheduled for November 11, 12-1:30 pm, 4th, Armitage Room, followed by Membership dinner at 8 pm. SHERA is pleased to announce a call for submissions for the newly-established SHERA Emerging Scholar Prize. The award, to be bestowed at the SHERA meeting during ASEEES Convention, aims to recognize and encourage original and innovative scholarship in the field. For the 2017 prize, articles published between September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2017 would be eligible. Applicants must have published an article in a scholarly print or online journal or museum print or online publication within the preceding twelve-month period.

For the 2017 prize, articles published between September 30, 2016 and September 30, 2017 would be eligible. Additionally, applicants are required to have received his or her PhD within the last 5 years (2012 or thereafter for the 2017 prize) and be a member of SHERA in good standing at the time that the application is submitted. The winner will be awarded $500 and republication (where copyright allows) or citation of the article on H-SHERA. Applications should include a CV including contact information (email, mailing address, and telephone) and a copy of the English-language article with header/colophon of the journal or catalogue together with a brief abstract. Applications should be sent to shera.prizes@gmail.com no later than October 15, 2017.